Zither.



J. D. FORBMAN. ZITHBB. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 18, 1908.

905,166. Patented Dec. 1, 190s.

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APPLIGATION FILED, :UNB 18, 1908.

905, 166. Patented Dec. L 190s.

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Joh n. D. Foreman J. D. IEGREMANIA ZITHER,

APPLIGATION FILE-D. 1UNB18,1908.

905, 166. Patented Dec. '1, 1908.

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John. D. Foreman.

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JOHN D. FOREMAN, OF HUDSON, MICHIGAN.

ZITHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 1, 1908.

Application led June 18, 1908. Serial No. 439,195.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it lrnown that I, JOHN D. FOREMAN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Hudson, in the county of Lenawee and State of Michigan, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Zithers, of which thefollowing is a specification. j

This invention relates to musical instruments and has especial referenceto that class of such devices which are known as zithers.

An object of this invention is to relatively position the strings on aninstrument of this nature that they may be more readily accessible tothe fingers of the player and so that the strings used may be clusteredin juxtaposition to one another.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a plurality ofstrings arranged in such relative position to one another that thisdevice will have many of the advantages of a piano, the operator beingenabled to play practically any musical composition, and occupying butsmall space.

A further object of this invention is the provision of a scale which ispositioned beneath the strings to designate the same more clearly thandevices of such a nature heretofore contrived.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the followingdescription and it will be understood that changes in the specificstructure shown and described may be made within the scope of the claimswithout departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the drawings forming a portion of this specification and in whichlike numerals of reference indicate similar parts in the several views,Figure 1 is a top plan view of the instrument. F ig. 2 is a frontelevation of the same. F ig. 3 is an elevation of the reduced end of theinstrument. Fig. 4t is an elevation of the opposite end of the same.Fig. 5 is a transverse section. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, designates a soundingboard which is supported at its opposite sides by the wrest plank 11 andthe string block 12. The sounding board 10 is provided with sound holes8O and 31. The wrest plank 11 and the string block 12 are supported upona bottom 13 which is mounted upon suitable legs 2O which are positionedat the corners and at the intermediate edges thereof. The front of theinstrument is straight while the rear edge is parallel to the front atthe bass end to about one third of the length of the instrument when ittapers toward the treble end where it is considerably reduced.

The string block 12 is provided with a plurality of pins 13 which aredisposed at an angle for the purpose of supporting the forward ends ofstrings 111. A string rail 15, which is provided with slots 16 ispositioned over the pins 13 and is supported in such position by a frontstrip 17 and a strip 1S carried upon the upper face of the soundingboard 10. The string rail is provided with a rib 19 in its upper facetowards the inner edge thereof adjacent to the slot 16. The rib 19 isformed of German silver preferably and is provided with a series ofnotches in its upper edge for the relative positioning of the strings 14which are passed thereover.

The rear of the instrument is provided with a supporting strip 21 whichextends above the sounding board 10 and supports upon its upper edge aforwardly extending strip 22 which carries the upper extremities of thewrest pins 23.

A bridge 25 of common structure is positioned upon the sounding board 10a short distance forward of the wrest pins 23 for the purpose ofsupporting the strings 14 and of holding them in their relativepositions.

The arrangement and number of strings 14 form an important part of thisinvention. The strings are 67 in number and are arranged as follows: Atthe right or treble end of the instrument three chromatic octaves oftwelve strings each are provided which are marked oif by the numeral 26.Adjacent to the strings 26 are ten diatonic strings which areintermediately disposed upon the instrument and are designated by thenumeral 27. A bass octave 28 is positioned adjacent to the diatonicstrings 27 having a space between them for the purpose of more readilydetermining the position of the same. Finally there are three sets ofbass strings of three strings each comprising strings which form chordsmost common in bass aceompaniments. It can be readily seen that amusical instrument having the strings thus arranged can be played veryreadily and with comparative ease on account of the adjacent position ofthe strings most frequently used. The three groups of three strings eachrender it possible for the operator to play chords of most frequentoccurrence with greater perfection and satisfaction than if picking thesame from the ordinary arrangement of the strings when the operator isliable to strike a wrong string and to produce a discord.

For the purpose of designating the different strings a strip 29 isemployed bearing the names of the strings and Corresponding symbols. Thesymbols which designate the diatonio notes are positioned in the topline of the strip 29, the three groups of three strings are all.diatonic and are thus designated upon the strip 29l by the numeralswhich are disposed one above the other. The chromatic notes or semitonesare designated by the name of the string with a numeral positioned aboveit in the second line of the strip E29.

What is claimed is:

A musical instrument comprising a sounding board, a bottom, legs on saidbottom, a wrest plank on said bottom, a string block on said bottom,said wrest plank and said string block supporting said sounding board,pins on said block, a front strip, a string rail on said front strip, astrip on said sound board for supporting said string rail, a rib on saidstring rail, a rear supporting stiip, a forwardly extending strip onsaid rear strip, a plurality of wrest pins carried by said forwardlyextended strip and extended through and engaged in said wrest plank.l

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature,

in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN D. FOREMAN.

"Witnesses TILLIAM' S. BROWN, ALFRED E, BRYANT.

